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Conference Committee -- where House and Senate negotiators meet to create a unified bill -- is the next step for the stimulus plan. The expectation of many is that the legislation will change. Obama has been clear on his desire to restore Health IT funding and school construction dollars. But it's not clear how much it will change, or what will be taken out. A lot will depend on these men:
By the way, these are the conferees working on the stimulus compromise… From the Senate: Democrats Harry Reid, Max Baucus and Daniel Inouye, and Republicans Chuck Grassley and Thad Cochran. From the House: Democrats David Obey, Charlie Rangel and Henry Waxman, and Republicans Jerry Lewis and Dave Camp. The average age of these 10 men: 71. Just askin’, but is that the change you can believe in? Indeed, the average Congress-watcher is probably wondering, “Where's a Blue Dog Dem or a moderate Republican?”Left out. Grassley and Cochran are in the meeting because they're the ranking Republicans on Finance and Appropriations, respectively. One important note is that the conference report -- the unified bill -- still needs to be voted on in both the House and the Senate, and the Senate version can still be filibustered. So the Committee doesn't have a free hand. But at this point, given the polling and the pressure and the Committee's stated intent to keep the final bill beneath $800 billion, holding the legislation hostage to demand more cuts in school funding would be a lot of heat for the centrists to bring down on themselves.